An essay by translator Dong Li, "Translating Zhu Zhu: Poetry as a
Lifeline," appeared on the website of World Literature Today, the
magazine and site that’s a prestigious voice in literature in
translation.
Reviews of The Wild Great Wall are forthcoming in outlets such as
Plume.
A tour by author Zhu Zhu is tentatively scheduled for December. He
will visit bookstores, universities, and art galleries in Southern
California.
Zhu Zhu was born in Yangzhou, P.R. China. He is the author of
numerous books of poetry, essays, and art criticism, including a
bilingual French edition translated by Chantal Chen–Andro. He’s the
recipient of Henry Luce Foundation Chinese Poetry Fellowship at the
Vermont Studio Center and the Chinese Contemporary Art Award for
Critics. He was also a guest at the Rotterdam and Val–de–Marne
International Poetry Festivals. He lives in Beijing.
Dong Li was born and raised in P.R. China. He is an
English–language poet and translates from the Chinese, English, and
German. He’s the recipient of a PEN/Heim Translation Grant and
fellowships from Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, Akademie
Schloss Solitude, Ledig House Translation Lab, Henry Luce
Foundation/Vermont Studio Center, Yaddo, and elsewhere.
“Though often overlooked internationally, Zhu Zhu has nevertheless
been producing one of the most interesting bodies of work in
contemporary Chinese poetry. His elegy to Zhang Zao is near perfect
as an embodiment of the deceased poet’s lyricism, while in
Florence, ‘We study the map and forget / we are already in those
pensively charming / streets and structures, roaming obliviously /
through its newly recovered anonymity.’ And translator Dong Li is a
rare talent, a trilingual poet who translates exactingly into
English from his native Chinese. In English as well as Chinese,
these are poems of lush description, of wide–ranging reading across
cultures and times, and of travel to the exterior and
interior.”
—Lucas Klein, translator, and co–editor of The Chinese Written
Character as a Medium for Poetry
“‘Embers, when dark enough, can be used for mirrors.’ The three
decades of Zhu Zhu’s poetry collected in The Wild Great Wall
salvage a darkling mirrorwork from the remains of what’s burned
away. A resonant poet of desire, memory, and historical reflection,
Zhu Zhu has found an apt translator in Dong Li, who understands
that ‘reunion happens in other people’s books, / happens in
translation, / happens in a foreign land.’ The Wild Great Wall will
introduce American readers to a singular poetic consciousness
adrift in modernity like ‘a floating bottle of morrow.’”
—Srikanth Reddy, author of Voyager and Changing Subjects:
Digressions in Modern American Poetry
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